Toby Diller was drinking a beer in public when a San Diego police car pulled up to confront him. Just over a minute later, the 31-year-old man was dead, a bullet to his head.
San Diego police say he ripped the gun and holster from an officer’s during a struggle making them fear for their lives but that is not evident in the two body camera videos released last week.
But what is evident from an overhead security camera video is that Dillion was not bothering anybody nor committing any other crime other than drinking a beer in public when police pulled up and confronted him. Police say he was “acting erratically” but that is not evident in the video other than he may have been waving his arms at one point.
The security video shows Diller took off running as soon as cops pulled up and stepped out of the car. It shows both cops giving chase, leaving the doors to the patrol car open, the keys still in the ignition, all to catch a man with a beer.
Diller eventually falls down in the street and the cops pounce on him, repeating the usual robotic commands as they tried to place the handcuffs on him.
At one point during the struggle, a cop says, “He’s got my gun, shoot him!”.
The second cop then shoots him in the head less than a second later. But even then, they didn’t feel safe until after they cuffed Diller’s hands behind his back.
Neither of the two body cam videos show Diller grabbing the gun but San Diego Police Chief David Nisleit said Diller was able to rip the gun and holster from the cop’s belt.
One of the cop’s body cameras fell off during the struggle so who is to say the same did not happen to the cop’s gun. Police say the case is still under investigation to determine whether charges will be filed against the cops.
The top video has been edited, shortened and slowed during parts to show what took place before the shooting. The bottom video is the full video released by police. Police redacted almost 30 seconds of audio immediately after the shooting because it was “disturbing.”
